Río Pastillo is a river in the municipality of Ponce,

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. It is also known as Río Marueño in the area of the municipality where it runs through barrio

Marueño Marueño (''Barrio Marueño'') is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Anón, Coto Laurel, Guaraguao, Quebrada Limón, Real, and San Patricio, and the coastal barrios of Canas and Capitanejo, Maru ...

. Together with Cañas River, Pastillo forms Matilde River. Pastillo is one of the 14 rivers in the municipality. The river originates at an altitude of 435 feet. Its tributaries are Quebrada Limon and Quebrada del Agua brooks and the river runs for 19 kilometers before feeding into Río Matilde at a height of 15 feet in Barrio Canas Urbano.

Origin

Río Pastillo has its origin in the northern mountains of Ponce's Barrio

, in an area called Yagrumo. This river runs for approximately before reaching barrio Canas in the city of Ponce where it merges with

Río Canas Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

to form Matilde River. The Government of Puerto Rico has plans to canalize this river.

Feeder streams

Quebrada Limón and Quebrada del Agua are two of the main feeder streams to Pastillo River. Quebrada del Agua was diverted via canalization to drain directly to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. In times of heavy rainfall, Quebrada del Agua was prone to overflow, as it happened on 7 October 1985, when 16 people died due to its flooding.Ferdinand Quiñones and Karl G. Johnson. ''The Floods of May 17–18, 1985 and October 6–7, 1985 in Puerto Rico.'' U.S. Geological Survey. Open File Report 87-123. Prepared in Conjunction with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources, Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, and the Puerto Rico Highway Authority. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1987. Page 11.

Course of the river

The following table summarizes the course of Rio Pastillo in terms of roads crossed. Roads are listed as the river flows from its origin in the mountains of Quebrada Limon, east of the city of Ponce, to its merging with Rio Canas to form Rio Matilde in Barrio Canas (N/A = Data not available):

Notes

References

External links